B4X

Set a Remote File's Creation Time

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.SetCreateTimeStr method, which sets a remote file's creation date and time. The arguments are the remote path (or handle), whether the first argument is a handle, and an RFC 822 formatted date/time string such as Fri, 21 Nov 1997 09:55:06 -0600.

Background: Setting timestamps matters when preserving a file's original chronology — migrating an archive, restoring a backup, or mirroring a directory so the copies look identical to the source. Whether creation time can actually be set depends on the server and filesystem; many do not support a settable creation time even when they can set the modified and accessed times. The RFC 822 format includes a timezone offset, so the moment is unambiguous.

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Dim success As Boolean = False

'  Demonstrates the SFtp.SetCreateTimeStr method, which sets a remote file's creation date and
'  time.  The 1st argument is the remote path (or handle), the 2nd (bIsHandle) indicates which,
'  and the 3rd is an RFC 822 formatted date/time string.

Dim sftp As ChilkatSFtp
sftp.Initialize("sftp")

'  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
Dim port As Int = 22
success = sftp.Connect("sftp.example.com", port)
If success = False Then
    Log(sftp.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


'  Normally you would not hard-code the password in source.  You should instead obtain it
'  from an interactive prompt, environment variable, or a secrets vault.
Dim password As String = "mySshPassword"

success = sftp.AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin", password)
If success = False Then
    Log(sftp.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


success = sftp.InitializeSftp
If success = False Then
    Log(sftp.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


'  The 1st argument is a path, so bIsHandle is False.
Dim bIsHandle As Boolean = False
Dim dateTimeStr As String = "Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:15:30 -0600"
success = sftp.SetCreateTimeStr("subdir/report.pdf", bIsHandle, dateTimeStr)
If success = False Then
    Log(sftp.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If

Log("Creation time set.")

sftp.Disconnect